In this paper, a stable adaptive fuzzy output tracking control scheme is de
veloped for a single-input-single-output unknown nonlinear system which can
be represented globally by an input-output model. The main characteristics
of the proposed adaptive fuzzy control are (i) it does not need the assump
tion that all the states of the system are available for full feedback, but
introduces a high gain observer to estimate them. (ii) It is composed of a
robust control term and an equivalence fuzzy control so that it not only e
nsures the stability of closed-loop system, but also attenuates the effect
of fuzzy approximation error on the tracking error of the system to arbitra
ry small level. (iii) It is proved that the designed output feedback adapti
ve fuzzy control can recover the performance achieved under the state feedb
ack controller. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights rese
rved.